The ideas for my paintings often develop in unique ways - and The Palace Bar is no exception. In 1995, Wilbur Feltner, the chairman of the board of the F&M Bank - which had commissioned some of my most popular paintings, including Until We Meet Again and Wayside Farewell - told me about a historic structure the bank had just bought in Winchester, Virginia. Plans called for it to be renovated as an office building with a gallery. Would I be interested, he asked, in incorporating the old building in a Civil War painting?

When I saw the building and learned of its history, I realized immediately that it offered tremendous possibilities as the backdrop to a painting. It had housed the Palace Bar, which lent itself to colorful outdoor signs. it was an interesting-looking brick structure with unique windows, old-fashioned shutters, and an adjacent courtyard where horses and carriages were kept. The fact that the building was a bar immediately led me to think of a night scene.

I placed a farewell scene in the setting after a rain as a change of pace from my snow scenes. Reflections from the barroom lights provide interesting lighting effects on the wet limestones. An officer says goodbye to his wife, while his fellow cavalrymen check their accoutrements, saddles and weapons in the preparation for their departure. I usually paint officers from the right, which allows me to show the saber, sash and other interesting accessories, It's a realistic, romantic scene which must have been repeated countless times during the war. While it reminds me of Until We Meet Again and Wayside Farewell, this painting - The Palace Bar - has many elements found in no other painting I have done.

-Mort Kunstler